The Blackhawks' Patrick Kane, right, has had off-ice issues but has kept his focus between the boards and is the team's leading scorer.

PLAYOFF FUTILITY

The Chicago Blackhawks last played in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1992, when they were swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins in four games. Since then, they had little playoff success before last year's surprising run:

One season removed from a decade of disappointment, the Blackhawks are back among the NHL elite and suddenly the biggest winners in this sports-crazed city. They are riding a string of 81 consecutive sellouts, establishing record local TV ratings and tripling sales of team merchandise.

"Those young players have brought electricity back to the United Center," said Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, the Blackhawks' career goal-scoring leader. "I just don't think they know how good they are."

As the NHL resumes its schedule after the Olympic break, the Blackhawks are tied with the Washington Capitals for the league lead in wins (41) and are a strong contender for the franchise's first Stanley Cup title in 49 years. That would end the NHL's longest active stretch of futility.

"It's going to be a sprint here across the league," coach Joel Quenneville said of the remaining 20 or so games on teams' regular-season schedules. "It's going to happen quick."

The Hawks won their last four games before the break, but three came in shootouts and the streak followed three consecutive losses. So starting fast, beginning with today's game at the New York Islanders, is a priority.

"We're all in agreement that we haven't played our greatest hockey the last three weeks (before the break)," defenseman Brian Campbell said. "We found ways to win those games, which is to our credit, but we need to get into our playoff mode."

Building on a surprising playoff run that carried Chicago to the Western Conference finals last season, the team is in the top four in the NHL in total points, goals and goals against.

The Blackhawks' speed and ability to control the puck in the offensive zone are the keys to the young team now considered among the most talented and entertaining in the NHL. Chicago will be featured the next two Sundays in the NBC national game of the week.

"When they attack, there's no team in the league that can handle them," Hull said. "It's speed, it's puck movement, it's tenacity. ... They have a tough time playing in their own end, but when they attack, watch out."

The talent was manifested during the Winter Olympics, in which six Blackhawks made it to the medal round, three on the gold medal-winning Canadian team. Jonathan Toews, the youngest captain in the NHL (21), was named the best forward of the Olympic tournament; he was tied for third in scoring with eight points and scored the first goal in Canada's 3-2 victory against the USA in Sunday's finale. Fellow third-year forward Patrick Kane had two assists for the USA in the gold medal game and two goals in the semifinals, and Marian Hossa, who missed the first 22 games of the season to have shoulder surgery after signing as a free agent, was second in the Olympics in scoring with nine points for Slovakia.

Canada also tapped two members of the Blackhawks' blue line: Duncan Keith, frequently mentioned for the Norris Trophy as best defenseman, pairs with Brent Seabrook to form one of the top defensive tandems in the league. Rest for the Olympians, who rejoined the team Monday in New York, isn't "on our radar screen," Quenneville said, smiling. "We're going to need 'em."

A year wiser

The Chicago offense is an integral component of its improved defense, with its commanding time of possession. The Blackhawks lead the league in fewest shots on goal allowed (24.4 a game), helping goaltenders Cristobal Huet (2.29 goals-against average) and Antti Niemi (2.16) rank in the top 10 in the NHL.

"A lot of times, our best defense is our offense," Quenneville said. "I think having the puck a lot in the offensive zone is part of it."

And Campbell is playing like the Blackhawks expected when they signed him to an eight-year, $57 million deal in July 2008. " 'Soupy' is like a new player this year," Quenneville said.

"We were a young team last year. A lot of younger players were going through it for the first time," Campbell said. "Now we're a year older, a year more experienced and a year better."

Stan Mikita, Hull's former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer, is impressed by this club's ability to win close games. In the down years, the team had some good players, "but in close games, they never had a chance at it because they weren't used to winning. These kids are."

Kane, 21, has become the team's leading scorer, already matching a career high with 25 goals and standing ninth in the NHL with 67 points. The winger's offseason was marked by his arrest after an altercation with a Buffalo cabdriver. But the incident, which was resolved when Kane pleaded guilty to a non-criminal charge of disorderly conduct, overshadowed more productive activity — he went on an extensive workout program that added speed and several pounds to his 5-10 frame.

"At the end of the season, I was probably 165 because I was sick in the playoffs and lost a lot of weight," Kane said. "Coming back into the season, I was around 180, a weight I probably want to play my whole career at."

Blackhawks strength and conditioning coach Paul Goodman designed the program for Kane, incorporating on-ice work with biking, running, jumping and weight training. Kane threw in a little Pilates and yoga.

"I think the biggest thing for me over the summer was to try to get a step or two faster and at the same time try to get stronger," Kane said. "It was everything. It was probably not your usual bodybuilding program where you're doing a lot of weights. It was a lot of repetitions."

Recovering from the grind and maintaining the strength throughout the season also was the goal, Goodman said. Kane is discernibly faster this year, and opponents are giving him more room as a result.

"There's no one with quicker feet or quicker hands than Patrick Kane," Hull said. "And he has shown he can take a hit and give a hit."

Reaching out to the past

Hull's presence at United Center, along with fellow Hockey Hall of Famers Mikita, Tony Esposito and Denis Savard, is another piece of the franchise's effort to reconnect with fans after more than a decade of decline.

When Rocky Wirtz took over as chairman in October 2007 after the death of his father, Bill, he hired Chicago Cubs executive John McDonough as president, and the pair enacted a remarkable turnaround for the organization with substantive and symbolic moves.

They quickly reached out to the old-timers, signing them up as ambassadors. They put all home games on television for the first time, helped bring the NHL Winter Classic to Chicago last season and produced the league's first offseason convention for fans, an idea McDonough originated with the Cubs. This year's Blackhawks convention, in late July, is sold out.

They hired Hall of Fame coach-executive Scotty Bowman, winner of 11 Stanley Cups (nine as coach), as senior adviser of hockey operations and Cubs marketing executive Jay Blunk as senior vice president for business operations. Bowman's son, Stan, was named general manager in July.

Season tickets went from 3,400 in 2007-08 to more than 14,000 this season, and merchandise sales increased more than 300% over the same period. The Blackhawks are playing to 107% capacity at United Center, best in the NHL, averaging 21,104 a game (second in the league to the Montreal Canadiens' 21,273).

Cable network ComcastSportsNet's ratings of Blackhawks games are up 100% this year, setting a regular-season ratings record for its telecasts five times. Over-the-air station WGN's ratings are up 72% and twice tied a single-game record.

In December, the club invested $135 million in long-term contracts for Toews, Kane and Keith, in addition to the $62.8 million committed to Hossa in a 12-year deal. Before last year, the Blackhawks made the playoffs once in the previous 10 seasons, losing in five games in the first round to the St. Louis Blues in 2002. Their last trip to the Stanley Cup Finals was in 1992, when they were swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Now, Hull and Mikita say the buzz around the team reminds them of the glory days of the 1960s, when the Blackhawks reached the Stanley Cup finals three times in a five-year span, winning in 1961.

While some observers wonder if Chicago's goaltending is good enough to withstand playoff pressure, the Blackhawks should be boosted by the addition of newly acquired defenseman Kim Johnsson and the return next week of injured forward Adam Burish, even if Stan Bowman doesn't pull off a trade before Wednesday's deadline.

"I think this is the year," Hull said. "These guys, they make me dizzy watching them the way they can skate. And with that tremendous crowd behind them, they've got everything going for them.

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